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Plasket: CU 'scandal' settlement just wrong

Contributed by: Bruce Plasket on 12/10/2007

It seems like I'm making a habit of being wrong.

While employed as a reporter in late 2002, I wrote about a then-new federal lawsuit that has since morphed into what is known as the "CU rape case" or the "CU recruiting scandal."

I assumed the other metro-area media outlets would do the same.

I was wrong.

The story received scant mention - even in Boulder - until 13 months later when reporters, like lemmings headed over a cliff, marched in lockstep under the direction of a press agent hired by the plaintiff's attorney. That PR flack representing the plaintiff created a frenzy by leaking depositions designed to advance the allegations.

Oddly, the same legal team went to great lengths - including legal threats and other attempts to stifle the free speech and careers of guys like me - to seal depositions and evidence that provided a completely different picture. Their hypocrisy, in the words of Doc Holliday in "Tombstone," apparently knew no end.

When the story finally broke wide open at the end of January, 2004, I assumed the media would work diligently to examine every shred of evidence in an effort to get to the truth and present an accurate picture of the explosive events leading up to the suit.

I was wrong again.

The print media instead followed the electronic media's ill-advised lead in presenting a series of salacious, racially-charged allegations, none of which was ever backed up with evidence. Political correctness won out over factual correctness and the media failed to apply any scrutiny to the allegations, perhaps in fear that any skepticism about a sex-assault allegation means you are in favor of rape.

Headlines and stories used the term "gang rape," an inaccurate phrase coined by plaintiff's counsel and picked up by reporters without a moment's thought, research or rationality. The media allowed Boulder District Attorney Mary Keenan (now Lacy) to publicly announce that she believed rapes had occurred in the same breath as she announced there was no evidence to support criminal charges.

Reporters never pressed Keenan - and would later let her off the hook again when she arrested that weird, skinny little guy for the murder of JonBenet Ramsey in the total absence of evidence. We all know how that one turned out, although I'm sure she would rather forget.

The ethically-challenged Keenan, while admittedly fostering the lawsuit, used her position to destroy young men by calling them rapists. She had neither the evidence to put her money where her mouth was nor the decency not to use her position as a tool of vengeance against people she didn't like.

The limp-willed media, of course, went along for the ride. The examination of both sides of this issue -- a rule journalists claim to swear by - fell by the wayside then and continues to do so to this day.

Reporters pretend to pride themselves on seeking justice for the wrongfully accused, but in this case joined the lynch mob. Ironically, when the prosecutor in the infamous Duke University rape case used unfounded allegations for political gain, he got caught and was disgraced.

Keenan did not.

Thanks to the watch dog-turned-lap dog mentality of the media, she got lucky.

I always thought she would be exposed, but I was wrong.

When a federal appeals court remanded the case back for trial earlier this year, I assumed CU would vigorously fight allegations that it turned a blind eye to misconduct and used sex to attract recruits. After all, a series of investigations - independent and otherwise - turned up no evidence to support that claim.

Again, I was wrong.

CU officials admit they settled the case to put it behind them and to begin rebuilding the school's reputation.

That doesn't mean it was the right thing to do.

While the headlines will now go away, the public perception that CU ran a scandalous athletic program back in the day will live on in infamy. Because the university capitulated, this case will forever be remembered as a scandal in which CU was guilty. The school was wrongfully and repeatedly accused by agenda-ridden extremists, lawyers, press agents and elected officials whose ethical standards make Keenan look like St. Francis of Assisi, but in the end gave up the fight.

A laughable recent article in the Denver Post said CU Regent Cindy Carlisle, whose attorney husband represented the plaintiff, faced an "ethics test" during the whole affair. If that's the case, she failed miserably while pretending she didn't have a terrible conflict of interest. Again, the media failed to even ask her about that conflict.

So, as the case winds down, Carlisle gets an article that sanitizes her political involvement while those wrongfully thrown under the proverbial bus remain there forever.

Where is the justice there?

At what point did we abandon the idea of doing what was right in favor of doing what is expedient? Former CU football coach Gary Barnett nailed it when he said the allegations held the university hostage and lamented the fact that the only court in which the case as tried was the court of public opinion - a point I repeatedly made in a book I wrote about the so-called scandal.

I thought maybe the media -- two years after Barnett was fired - would let the guy have his say without falling back on its own bias.

Wrong again.

When Barnett's rather bland statement appeared on his Web site, headlines said he "bashed" or "lashed out at" the university. He did neither. When a man who has been demeaned for several years decides to - God forbid - defend himself, the media calls it bashing or lashing out. Apparently free speech is a right granted to the Ward Churchills of the world, but not the Gary Barnetts.

Among those who actually did the bashing:

Activists, armed with agendas instead of evidence, who trumped up charges and created inflated, phony, unverifiable numbers about multiple rapes by CU athletes before and during the Barnett administration. When pressed, those activists said confidentiality precluded them from providing details. How convenient for them.

Keenan, who thinks evidence is far less important than her personal agenda of hate and misplaced vengeance.

The Denver media, which should have known better but still jumped on the bandwagon without the benefit of knowing or caring about facts.

Those people and others too numerous to name, not Barnett, are your bashers and lashers.

One of the saddest things about CU's decision not to fight the allegations at trial is that decent, honest men with lifelong records of doing the right thing -- like Barnett and those who worked and played for him --will not have the chance to clear their names in a court of law.

And, those who say Barnett has no beef because he was paid $3 million upon his firing are missing the point. That logic dictates that it's okay to destroy a man's reputation without cause if he has money.

Unfortunately, many of those victimized by this hate campaign/ shakedown, didn't and don't have money. Why aren't the victim advocates crying any tears for them?

Regardless of one's opinion of Gary Barnett, anyone who has investigated him for more than 30 seconds knows that the portrait of him as a man who is callous about sex assault and disrespectful of women is completely false and borders on the absurd.

I spent over a year investigating both him and his program and, at the bottom of the groundless-accusation pile, found a man who has always been the opposite of the man portrayed by the radical-agenda police and a man who speaks the truth even in the face of political correctness.

The image created by a PR machine makes us believe that this prudish man who is offended and embarrassed by girlie magazines told his troops to show the recruits a "good time."

Some months ago I mistakenly assumed - and fervently hoped - I had written about this disturbing case for the last time. Since leaving the trade I have tried to stay as far away as possible from the disgraceful dung heap that journalism has become. But the settlement story brought back pain and anger I had filed away in an effort to move on.

Unlike the administration at CU, I discovered that moving on in the face of injustice is extremely difficult and demands comment.

I hope that someday there is justice for the real victims in this case and comeuppance for those who used hate and stereotype to further their agenda. I like to believe that will be the case.

But, I'll probably be wrong.

Bruce Plasket, the author of two books, is a former journalist and is currently working as an actor, comedian and screenwriter. He lives in New Mexico.



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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
Submitted By: Mike McCurdy
posted on 12/11/2007 @ 11:18:05 AM
Rated Story
Thanks Bruce! You continue to be a credit to your profession and one of the last of a dying breed. Watching the media sell out the truth for ratings was a very sobering experience for me, hopefully some of the next generation will remember that the truth comes first and make the news relevant again. Good luck in New Mexico!
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Submitted By: joan russell
posted on 12/10/2007 @ 9:47:50 PM
Rated Story
right on bruce. thanks. i know i can always count on you to deliver the truth....unfortunately the media doesn't find truth as an asset...a liability i guess. happy holidays.
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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Bruce Plasket

Albuquerque , NM

Bruce Plasket has posted 2 stories and 0 comments since joining on 6/25/2006. Bruce Plasket's average story rating is 4.5.
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